Life in Balance: Make leftovers a special part of Thanksgiving

Every since I was a small child, my favorite part of Thanksgiving was the leftovers. I always wanted my mother to buy a lot of the white soft dinner rolls so that I could make my own turkey sandwiches.

Beside my sandwich, I now love to make soup stock from the turkey bones. When I am invited out for dinner, I always look at the turkey bones and say "I sure hope they are going to make some delicious stock with the bones." I like to freeze the stock and then I can always have a jar ready to use in the fridge.

Anytime you are cooking with vegetables and need some liquid in your cooking, I reach for my wonderful stock and it always adds a special flavor to my dish.

Turkey meat should be put in the refrigerator as soon as the meat that you are going to serve for the dinner is cut off. That way after dinner when you are too full and too tired to do anything with the turkey, it is already in the refrigerator cooling. All you have to do is take the meat off the bones and make a salad for everyone to have over the weekend.

Turkey Soup Stock

1 turkey, carcass

4 to 5 quarts cold water

2 to 3 stalks celery

2 to 3 large onions, sliced

4 carrots sliced

Salt and pepper

Place carcass in a large heavy pan. Cover with 4 to 5 quarts cold water. Add vegetables and seasonings. Bring to a boil.

Cover and reduce heat. Simmer about 3 to 5 hours.

Remove bones.

Drain remaining broth through cheesecloth to strain out vegetables and small bones.

Cool the broth in the refrigerator until fat solidifies. Skim off fat.

Use broth for delicious soups or as a base for gravies or sauces. If you want to use it later you can freeze in quart jars. Be sure to leave the lid off and leave room at the top for the broth to rise as it freeze. Then put the lid on and keep until ready to use.

Fold into the turkey vegetable mixture. Refrigerate until ready to serve. Mound turkey salad on crisp lettuce and circle with desired garnished. Salad is great along but if you want to add garnished you could include toasted almonds, sliced apples, grapes, pineapple chunks, avocado slices or hard-cooked eggs. Serves 6 to 8.

This salad is an entire meal that is healthy and delicious.

Speaker and author Dian Thomas shares her journey of weight loss, exercise and life on the run every other Wednesday in the Deseret News and at www.DianThomas.com. She also speaks to groups and takes tour to China. Email: info@dianthomas.com